Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/188

180 wind of ashes which swept over it and the insupportable cold."

From one of the dizzy heights on this burning mountain, Popocatapetl, the explorers saw an Indian trail winding down through the stunted shrubbery of a pass at their feet which seemed much more direct and easy than the one which the army had chosen. Wrapping some huge icicles in their blankets, to prove that they had actually been in this frigid zone, the party retraced their steps. After some conference with their Aztec leaders, it was decided to take the route just discovered.

A storm of rain and sleet was now sweeping wildly through the pass. Men and horses were benumbed with cold, but they struggled on till nightfall, when they came to an inhabited place in Chalco, where the Aztecs pointed out a large house newly built by their country-folk for the accommodation of the traveling public. In this building Cortez and all his men, numbering between four and five thousand, found shelter for the night. Abundance of provision had been stored up here, with firewood ready for use. Every lodging-room was soon warmed by a blazing fire built on the stone floors. The smoke escaped through the open window or door, there being no chimneys in all Mexico.

The army was now approaching the valley by a road which crossed its mountain-wall between the two great peaks, Popocatapetl and Iztaccihuatl, which rise on the south-east like the pillars of some majestic gateway. They had not yet reached the highest point in the pass when they were met by messengers from the Aztec council; they were charged with one more almost despairing message from the council. With childish fear and persistence, they begged the Spaniards even